BARD PAPER: OPAL7000

Graff

D3457O7-8

by Idiot/Savant

Even colder than Leng, Graff's terrain is split between utterly dry and barren plains and uplands and deep, ice-covered "crater-seas". The depths of these seas are warmed in places by tectonic activity, which has led to some small oases of life on the otherwise barren world. The atmospheric taint is mostly sulphur compounds spewed into the air by volcanoes, though the extremely low atmospheric moisture level also contributes to its unbreathability.

Before the Collapse, Graff was a fairly standard F-Tech world, its population of seven million living in both undersea and underground habitats. Several species of oasis-life were farmed and herded, and traded to other worlds in exchange for high-tech manufactured goods. Prior warning of the Virus led to most of the cities totally severing their data links before they were infected, thus the Collapse did not wreak its full horrors on Graff. However, several of the the surface settlements were invaded by Virus, and the news (carried by a few refugees) underscored the dangers of communication. Graff is only just beginning to recover from its retreat into isolationism, the cities only recently having joined together to form a planetary government along federal lines. The various communities govern themselves in their own manner (usually some form of democratic government), and provide representatives for a planetary concillium. As a hold-over from the previous F-Tech constitution most councillers are selected on the basis of their expertise, rather than being popularly elected. There are no organised political parties in the planetary government, though there is an informal division between "progressives", who favour limited interstellar contact, and "conservatives", who point to the horrors of the Collapse as an illustration of the dangers of such contact. The current consensus is slightly progressive - thus, the starport remains open, and the small planetary navy (a scout and a converted fat trader, neither jump capable) does not warn ships away.

Graff Government Values:

Armed Forces of Graff: